Post by irvsp on Jul 16, 2015 12:10:17 GMT
Check this one out, windowssecrets.com/top-story/are-systemregistry-cleaners-worthwhile/, interesting.
Basically it appears most claims by vendors are 'overrated' I guess? Also, CCleaner might be the best, but is it really required?
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Bottom-line conclusions and caveats
One of the key takeaways from these tests isn’t about the tested products themselves. Rather, it’s that Windows systems regularly maintained with the operating system’s built-in tools are already running relatively lean and clean. Based on the above tests, third-party tools probably won’t improve system performance by much — if at all.
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These tests tend to confirm that the manual cleaning methods mentioned above, plus lightweight cleaning from third-party tools such as CCleaner, might be all you need to keep a PC operating at or near best-available levels of performance.
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I also worry about over-cleaning. I have to wonder about the high fault numbers reported by jv16 PowerTools X and Advanced SystemCare and what the two products are actually cleaning. (In some cases, the cure might be worse than the disease.) It’s difficult to know whether some of those “faults” are misdiagnoses, minor errors that have no real effect on system performance, or true issues — or possibly exaggerated numbers designed to make the product seem more valuable than it really is. I just don’t know. (Again, a recent full backup is your safety net for recovering from any damage done by overly aggressive cleaning.)
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That last part always bothers me. I see MRU (Most Recently Used) items in all the registry cleaners. Harmless and they get replaced eventually (some specific counts are held for varying places) anyway. Just like Browser History for instance. Some I've seen remove the ENTIRE MRU list. Sure they are not 'needed' and take up registry space, but removing ALL entries is wrong. I like seeing the list for the RUN box, and yes, removing a deleted programs is OK, but not everything. I found almost ALL have problems with extra removal of FONTS. They take out the entries for ones not in use and then later I want to use them and the entry is gone. Same for FILE EXTENSIONS.
One problem I do see is 'disconnected' entries. For instance I install a game and it put entries into the registry. Then I use an uninstaller to take it out. It generally can get the specific program entries, but not something that isn't specifically known, but known inside the program only. If you look at HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software you'll basically see company names. Open some of those up and you will see sometimes the name of the program you deleted. Generally speaking that is where the game keeps its status, but an uninstaller can't tell that and it is left around. Even CCleaner doesn't touch these as there is NO reference back to an exe file. Same goes for a license for a program. That is generally 'scrambled' and hidden in the registry and the program knows how to locate and unscramble it. No uninstaller will take that out and generally speaking it is left in the registry in case you re-install later. I manually check that registry location occasionally and clean it out.
Basically it appears most claims by vendors are 'overrated' I guess? Also, CCleaner might be the best, but is it really required?
============
Bottom-line conclusions and caveats
One of the key takeaways from these tests isn’t about the tested products themselves. Rather, it’s that Windows systems regularly maintained with the operating system’s built-in tools are already running relatively lean and clean. Based on the above tests, third-party tools probably won’t improve system performance by much — if at all.
=============
===========
These tests tend to confirm that the manual cleaning methods mentioned above, plus lightweight cleaning from third-party tools such as CCleaner, might be all you need to keep a PC operating at or near best-available levels of performance.
===========
===========
I also worry about over-cleaning. I have to wonder about the high fault numbers reported by jv16 PowerTools X and Advanced SystemCare and what the two products are actually cleaning. (In some cases, the cure might be worse than the disease.) It’s difficult to know whether some of those “faults” are misdiagnoses, minor errors that have no real effect on system performance, or true issues — or possibly exaggerated numbers designed to make the product seem more valuable than it really is. I just don’t know. (Again, a recent full backup is your safety net for recovering from any damage done by overly aggressive cleaning.)
===========
That last part always bothers me. I see MRU (Most Recently Used) items in all the registry cleaners. Harmless and they get replaced eventually (some specific counts are held for varying places) anyway. Just like Browser History for instance. Some I've seen remove the ENTIRE MRU list. Sure they are not 'needed' and take up registry space, but removing ALL entries is wrong. I like seeing the list for the RUN box, and yes, removing a deleted programs is OK, but not everything. I found almost ALL have problems with extra removal of FONTS. They take out the entries for ones not in use and then later I want to use them and the entry is gone. Same for FILE EXTENSIONS.
One problem I do see is 'disconnected' entries. For instance I install a game and it put entries into the registry. Then I use an uninstaller to take it out. It generally can get the specific program entries, but not something that isn't specifically known, but known inside the program only. If you look at HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software you'll basically see company names. Open some of those up and you will see sometimes the name of the program you deleted. Generally speaking that is where the game keeps its status, but an uninstaller can't tell that and it is left around. Even CCleaner doesn't touch these as there is NO reference back to an exe file. Same goes for a license for a program. That is generally 'scrambled' and hidden in the registry and the program knows how to locate and unscramble it. No uninstaller will take that out and generally speaking it is left in the registry in case you re-install later. I manually check that registry location occasionally and clean it out.